My New Year's Photography Resolution

After a little thought about what I'd like to achieve this year, I came up with several good options... seeing out my 40's in as good a physical shape as I can (requires much effort), remodeling my house and garden (requires much expenditure) and working hard enough to earn an overseas family holiday (requires huge change in character). I've settled on one that I'm determined to fulfill: Doing some good with my photography.

I've never thought my shooting was ground-breaking enough to be really significant, nor had that large an ego to think my pictures made a big difference to the world, but last year as I cast my electoral vote, I decided I had to do more to help change the world for the better, so I'm going to try and use some of my shooting for good. Here's my first step.

You'll probably already know I live at the base of Otago Peninsula, a part of the world blessed with great landscapes and wildlife. Mrs C, Miss C(8) and I like to get out and enjoy what it has to offer whenever we can, and one of our favourite spots is Sandfly Bay.

There's a great big dune there that you walk down to get to the beach and once down there, you're likely to see some of our small breeding population of Hooker's Sea Lions.  They're magnificent beasts and despite their size and appearance, are pretty safe to go see - from a respectful distance.

The large males can be a bit protective of their territory, but mostly they're up on the beaches resting after a hard day at the office.

Here's the thing.  They're endangered and the New Zealand Government isn't doing what it can to prevent these beautiful creatures from being accidentally killed by squid fishing trawlers. They could easily place sea lions under the protection of the marine mammals act, rather than the fisheries act, and they could move to encourage the squid fishing industry that is licensed to fish our waters to use less damaging methods like jigging rather than trawling.

I hope you feel the same, and if you do, that you'll go here to the Forest and Bird website and sign the petition (its very quick and easy to do) requesting our politicians to make some changes. It's a small thing, but I'm hoping by doing many small things with my photos this year, I can make the world a little better or at least leave it as good as I found it when it's time for Miss C(8) to take her family to Sandfly bay. 

As always, thanks for stopping by.